The Canadian-born NYC alt-pop artist Tori Lord  turns a bad act into a sleek, dark pop single with bite, poise, and replay value. "Conman" has the energy of watching someone’s perfect online persona glitch live. One second, the smile is glossy. The next, the lighting is too bright, the story does not add up, and Tori Lord is already two steps ahead. This new single from...

For a man who has authored over 300 compositions, the French guitarist Arnito somehow still sounds entirely untethered on his latest release, "Musiques de mon monde, vol.4". When a musician hits their twenty-seventh album, you usually expect them to settle gracefully into a predictable chair. Arnito, alternatively, rips up the floorboards. The guitar-driven record acts as an intensely felt invitation to explore a map...